This is McKenzie River Trail, in the Willamette National Forest. Trail starts out as a lava strewn disaster of sharp rocks and pain, but smoothes out nicely as it descends. Unfortunately, by the time the smooth part was on deck, I was absolutely pulverized by the upper technical portion, and felt more as though I was working a construction gig, or maybe boxing against Ali, instead of riding a bike. My analogy was, that I felt like the trail was laborious, rewardless pain. Like beating my 'crank' on a rock for no reason....
At least it was pretty. The trailhead sign where we deposited the third car for the shuttle.
After the drive up, the trail begins with a clear volcanic mountain lake.
The Volcanic theme extended to the trail surface of the upper portion as well. Sharp, leg-gutting rock. Not a good place to hit the deck. Easy enough, yeah?
More Lake Views, a little further down the trail.
Split log river crossings were pretty common. I think there were three?
The McKenzie River
Falls on the River. Very pretty trail, and less painful than up higher on the route, so it was easier to compartmentalize my pain and just enjoy the views...at least for a while.
More Lake views. There were quite a few of these lava-rock bottomed lakes along the route as well. Not at all like the tannin filled goo we call fresh water here in Florida.
Western Woods Research?! The EWR did great. Much better than my big ass did anyway!
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A hard day. A good day, but a hard day. I was pretty bummed that the trailhead was so far from the house, some 2.5 hours away, total of nearly 5 hours drive time, which made for a 12 hour day in total, but still...I'm glad that we did the trail when all was said and done.
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"The McKenzie River National Recreational Trail is one of the best rides anywhere, and that's not limited to Oregon. The spectacular scenery... seems perfectly balanced with the rides challenging singletrack and all-day distance."
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Kissing the Trail
Northwest and Central Oregon
by John Zilly
ISBN 978-188158312-7
Kissing the Trail
Northwest and Central Oregon
by John Zilly
ISBN 978-188158312-7
3 comments:
Jaw dropping stuff.....every time I see pix of Oregon trails it makes me want to emigrate :-)
My 'yellow' would like it there too..
That water in the lakes is just amazing -- so clear!
Some people might be into laborious, rewardless pain. Just sayin'.
There were more like 10 of those stupid bridges. The first few were nice but then I tired of picking up my bike.
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